First Sunday After Christmas

Psalm: Psalm 148

Old Testament: Isaiah 63:7-9
Gospel: Matthew 2:13-23
Epistle: Hebrews 2:10-18

Welcome to Christmas time. I missed a Christmas post and I also failed to posts last week blog on time, but I will press on anyway. Today is actually the sixth day of Christmas, and if you remember from the Christmas carol there are 12 days of Christmas ending January 6^th, which is Epiphany. One thing I hope to do by this blog is to open your and my eyes to the possibilities of living our lives by a calendar and time different than the one the secular world offers. Our culture has co-opted or hijacked every holiday, no matter how noble its beginning, into an opportunity for us to amass more things and feed our own desires and wishes. Every holiday has become a time when we are pressured to buy more and more and if we don’t we somehow really don’t love our family and friends and don’t know how even to take care of ourselves. Our culture tells us that it is ok to covet, be greedy, glutinous, selfish, get what we deserve, and to get the best prices even if it means our purchases directly harm both the hands that made it and the Creation God has given us. But the Christian calendar constantly reminds us that long before Western consumerism hijacked our “holy days” They stood as days and times that drew us back to God. In contrast to the ads and stores which will now turn our eyes to big screen TVs for the Superbowl and gifts again for our spouses on Valentines, we sit for 12 days in Christmas and celebrate that Jesus came as a baby, an event so huge that we can’t possible explore it enough in one day.  Even 12 days isn’t enough to explore all that it means, but for 12 days the church reflects on the coming of Jesus as a baby in humble beginnings in a very specific time and place.

Advent Week 4

Psalm: Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19

Old Testament: Isaiah 7:10-16
Gospel: Matthew 1:18-25
Epistle: Romans 1:1-7

Well, I am a day late this week but that is what happens sometimes around the holidays.  I think we have a strange collection of Scriptures this week and other than the fact that Romans 1:1-7 says Jesus four times I’m struggling to find a connection to the other three readings.  The central theme this week is that God is Immanuel, which of course means “God with us.” Names had significance in the Old Testament.  When Jacob’s 12 children are named, they each got a name which expressed how either their mother or Jacob was feeling about the child or sometimes a message about how their life would go.  In the same chapter from our Isaiah reading, Isaiah is told to go and meet king Ahaz with his son Shear-Jashub, which means “a remnant shall return.”  Setting aside what unfortunate names some of the prophets’ children got, the names became signs and messages to the people.

Advent Week 3

Psalm: Psalm 146:5-10 

Old Testament: Isaiah 35:1-10 

Gospel: Matthew 11:2-11 

Epistle: James 5:7-10

Welcome to the third week of Advent, traditionally known as the Sunday of joy.  The last few weeks have focused more on the second coming of Jesus and the hope we have as we wait for that day.  Today, however, we will look more at the first coming of Jesus and his ministry on earth.

First, let us look back at what the two Old Testament readings say about Jesus’ first coming.  In both the Psalms and Isaiah, the writers are looking forward to a time and place when all things will be made right.  We have looked at this idea the past two weeks in relation to the hope we have when Jesus comes again, but these two writers are hoping that the Messiah, God’s Anointed, would come and bring the healing and justice Israel and the world greatly needed.  They both envision a time when the whole created order will rejoice in the Lord and all hurt and pain will cease.  The blind will see and the deaf will hear and the lame will walk and the prisoner will be set free.  Justice, but also a great joy, will be present when that day comes.

Advent Week 2

Psalm: Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19 

Old Testament: Isaiah 11:1-10 

Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12 

Epistle: Romans 15:4-13

Another week of Advent has come and gone, or to put it another way we are one week closer to Christmas. 

This week our theme revolves around hope.  Often when it comes to Advent and Christmas we focus on the first coming of Jesus.  We see the Nativities, hear the phrase “Jesus is the reason for the season,” and remember that we only have a Christmas because Jesus came the first time.  Of course this is reason to hope and is what we celebrate at Advent.  But our readings today, and the Advent season also remind us that our hope is that Christ will come again and God’s kingdom will be fully inaugurated.

Advent Week 1

Psalm: Psalm 122  

Old Testament: Isaiah 2:1-5  
Gospel: Matthew 24:36-44  
Epistle: Romans 13:11-14

I have decided to write some more posts on the Lectionary since I wasn’t writing very much on other topics. Hopefully we can all grow in Christ and we can teach each other some things.

Another season of Advent is upon us. For many, the decorations are already up and the shopping season has started before the Thanksgiving dishes were washed and put up. But, I want to pause and again ask a question we have pondered on this blog before: whose time is it? So often we want to know what time it is. What time is the football game? When is the meeting? How many days until Christmas? These questions all have a numerical answer, but the question of whose time is it has a person as an answer; it is God’s time. Advent is the start of the Christian Calendar and it is always good to pause and reconsider the fact that God is the Creator and the Sustainer of all creation. Time and creation have a goal and are heading in the direction of God’s Kingdom coming fully. We celebrate during the Advent season, and especially the Christmas season, that God is not only over time, but that he also entered into our time and space in the person of Jesus. God actually became a helpless baby, lived and breathed, died, was buried, and then rose again to redeem and restore creation and time.  Jesus' life and death provide the means whereby God’s rule over time can be complete.